The creation of Rhapsody American joins RealNetworks, MTV Networks (a division of Viacom) and Verizon Wireless in creating a broad scale offering of the music subscription service model. Up until now, Rhapsody has remained a relatively niche product compared to the mammoth that is iTunes/iPod. I’ve always felt that the Rhapsody model is superior from the stand point of enjoying lots of music for a low monthly price, but have always found it lacking in marketing muscle (when was the last time you saw a Rhapsody ad on the side of a bus?). Rhapsody, the service, is also harder to describe to someone whereas you can immediately understand iTunes. I like this deal for a number of reasons:
1) It gives Rhapsody access to the MTV Networks and their marketing clout. Hopefully, we’ll see a lot of GOOD Rhapsody ads come out. I like Eric Clapton and all, but the last set of ads I saw about Rhapsody and Sansa were lame.
2) Rhapsody goes mobile by getting on Verizon handsets and service. Verizon has it’s own 3G network and a relatively tight operating system/backend system combination making it easier to roll out new products and services across the network of it’s million of subscribers.
3) MTV gets out of URGE and can invest content/money/marketing into a service that will be around for a while. It was funny that as soon as Urge launched, Microsoft peeled off to put money and effort into Zune – neat. MTV knows music, can reach millions of people and was (like most content folks) in need of a mobile strategy.
4) Verizon gets a cooler music experience that will be more lucrative in the long run than selling individual songs through iTunes or whatever on their phones.
5) The combination of technology (rhapsody), media reach (MTV Networks) and handsets (millions and millions from Verizon) will give Rhapsody America a lot of leverage with labels for DRM free MP3s, exclusive content, artist launch relationships and good pricing. This is all necessary to educate the world on the subscription model and challenge Apple directly.

Very exciting news indeed. I look forward to a world rich in music with Rhapsody a major part of it.